2023-06-12 04:32:02
NEW YORK (AP) — The intimate, funny and sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” pushed aside its glitzier rivals Sunday to win the trophy for best musical at the Tony Awards on a night Broadway showcased its creative muscle in middle of the Hollywood Writers Strike and made history with awards for non-binary actors J Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.
“Kimberly Akimbo,” with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teenager with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 years as she navigates a dysfunctional family and high school romance. . Victoria Clark, as the lead in the play, added a second Tony to her trophy case, as she won one of her own in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.”
Producer David Stone credited the musical’s writers for making magic, calling “Kimberly Akimbo” a “musical comedy regarding the fragility of life, so healing, so deep and joyful it’s almost impossible.”
Moments earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Newell and Ghee became the first non-binary people to win acting Tony Awards. Last year, songwriter and writer Toby Marlow of “Six” became the first non-binary Tony winner.
Thank you for humanity. Thanks to my amazing company that kept me going every day,” said Ghee, winner of the award for best actor in a musical, who stars in “Some Like It Hot,” the adaptation of the classic drag comedy film. The soulful Ghee wowed the audience with his voice and his dance skills, playing a musician, who on the run from gangsters, tries on a dress and transforms.
Newell, who plays Lulu, an independent whiskey distiller who doesn’t need anyone in “Shucked,” has wowed audiences with her signature number, “Independently Owned.” He won best supporting actor in a musical.
“Thanks for seeing me, Broadway. I shouldn’t be up here as a little fat, non-binary, queer black baby from Massachusetts. And anyone who thinks he can’t do it, I’m going to look him right in the face, because he can do anything he sets his mind to,” Newell said before receiving a standing ovation.
Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, won best play, also garnering director Patrick Marber, supporting actor Brandon Uranowitz and costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel.
The Czech-British playwright, who now has five Tony Awards for best play, joked that he won his first in 1968, noting that playwrights “were becoming progressively devalued on the food chain” despite being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid”.
Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a blank script backstage before dancing and jumping to kick off the ceremony with a frenetic opening number that gave an electric shock to what is usually a joyous, confident and enjoyable evening. . The writers’ strike has led to awards for the best of musical theater and plays to rely on spontaneity in a new location away from the theater district.
Before the ceremony began, DeBose revealed to the public the only words that would be seen on the teleprompter: “Please break up.” Later that night, practically out of breath following his wordless performance, he thanked the organizers for agreeing to hold the ceremony.
“I am live and without a script. You’re welcome,” she said. “To anyone who thought last year was a bit of a turnaround, I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.'”
The winners showed their support for the striking writers either on the podium or on the red carpet wearing pins. Miriam Silverman, who won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” ended her speech with: “My parents raised me to believe in the power of work and workers’ compensation and treated fairly. We stand with the WGA (Writers Guild of America) in solidarity!”
Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of “Killing Eve,” won best actress in a play for her Broadway debut in the solo play “Prima Facie,” which illustrates how today’s laws fail horribly. when it comes to sexual assault cases.
Sean Hayes won best actor in a play for “Good Night, Oscar,” which dramatizes the long night’s journey into the troubled psyche of now-unknown but once-star pianist Oscar Levant.
“This has to be the first time an Oscar has won a Tony,” Hayes quipped.
Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play regarding sibling rivalry, inequality and society’s false promises, won the Tony for Best Revival. Parks thanked director Kenny Leon and stars Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: “They showed up great in a world that often doesn’t want people like us to live.”
Bonnie Milligan, who won best supporting actress in a musical for “Kimberly Akimbo,” had a message for audiences: “I want to tell everyone who may not look like the world is telling them they should: you are not pretty enough, you are not fit enough, your identity is not correct, who you love is not correct. It does not matter”.
“Because guess what?” he continued, award in hand. “Okay, and you belong.”
John Kander, the 96-year-old composer behind iconic musicals like “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “The Scottsboro Boys,” was honored with a special lifetime achievement award.
“This is very big,” he said. “When your own community honors you, it’s very rewarding and a little scary.”
She thanked her parents, her husband, Albert Stephenson, and the musician, who “has been my friend throughout my life and promised to stay with me until the end.”
Jennifer Gray presented her father, “Cabaret” star Joel Grey, with another Tony for lifetime achievement.
“Being recognized by the theater community is a great gift because it has always been, along with my children, my greatest and most enduring love,” said the actor.
“Parade,” a musical regarding a doomed love story set once morest the real-life backdrop of a murder and lynching in Georgia before World War I, which won the Tony for best new musical in 1999, took home the award for best revival of a musical, and its director Michael Arden the award for best direction of a musical.
“’Parade’ tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more valuable than another and might be more deserving of justice,” Arden said. “This is a belief that is at the core of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, and bigotry of any kind. We must unite. We must fight this.”
The show featured performances from all of the nominated musicals, and Will Swenson, who stars in a Neil Diamond musical on Broadway, led the audience in a spirited rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele from “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” also did a dizzying version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade”.
The ceremony was held at the United Palace Theater in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, a new location many miles from Times Square and the theater district.
“Thank you all for going away from the center. Never in my wildest dreams, really,” Lin-Manuel Miranda joked onstage. The Puerto Rican-born playwright and actor wrote the musical “In the Heights,” set in Washington Heights.
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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.
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Mark Kennedy is on Twitter as
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